Two days before the Test, Pandurang Salgaonkar — the long-time curator of Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) — had boasted “the Test will last five days’’ and that the “ball would fly”. When asked what happened, Salgaonkar quipped “Ask Daljit [Singh].”
What he meant was that the pitch prepared by him was “tinkered with” by the BCCI’s ground and pitch committee representatives to suit the Indian spinners.
It’s generally understood that communication from the team management to the ground-in-charge at venues goes through an official of the BCCI and this time around too it could not have been different.
Five years ago, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was categorical about the need to prepare ‘designer pitches’ for India’s spinners against Alastair Cook’s England team; India, however, lost the series 1-2.
